SUBCARD™ is a revolutionary loyalty programme which provides SUBWAY® with a set of solutions to a whole host of classic retail issues. It is an extraordinary loyalty programme because it is also a sales promotion system, a customer research tool, a sales spike driver, and a gift card system. It is also the only meaningful loyalty programme operating in the NZ Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) sector (ie SUBWAY® compete with McDonald’s, KFC et al). The SUBCARD™ system integrates a real-time transaction database with existing point of sale systems across 200+ stores, with secondary integration with an email engine and reporting tools to support an evolving customer contact strategy focused on growing sales.

SUBWAY® know they have something special in SUBCARD™. It is a dual function gift and rewards card which does not require registration for customers to use and benefit from, meaning they can start earning rewards immediately; however there are benefits to registration. It was a major leap of faith on the part of 200 franchisees to support its launch. It is now being rolled out in Ireland and (soon) the UK, whilst discussions are going on about implementation in other markets. Cardholders earn ‘rewards dollars’ on purchases which they can redeem in-store for food and beverages.

The key initial objectives of SUBCARD™ were to obtain 100% franchisee support and replace the existing stamps programme, get 500,000 cards issued within three months and obtain 50,000 registered users in the same period. That these numbers were beaten early is testimony to SUBWAY® customers’ appetite for the programme and the ease of joining the system. The sustained growth over two years further underlines this as the SUBCARD™ loyalty programme has issued over 1m cards, has over 150,000 ‘registered’ users, and is delivering significant ROI and increased customer frequency in the teeth of a recession.